Vermillion Knives
by XxRoseandIvyxX
Summary: Vermillion (Red) a girl from District One is sent out of her life of luxury to engage in the 187th Hunger Games along with the people she used to know. She's had no experiance with hard-ship at all and she's tries the best she can from going insane when she accidently kills a girl who she never got along with in order to save the boy she loved. Can this love-stricken tribute win...
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: Red

Red ran through the trees. Branches smacked her face, making her wince. Her eyes watered and she looked frantically to see if anyone was following her. Red had already watched Plaid strangle Guppy (the boy from three), watched Evan, (the boy from four) kill the girls from eleven and twelve, and the boy from two killed the girl from six. I think the girl from elevens name was Evergreen, that one stood out to me. The girl from twelve's name was Jayla. And the girl from six's name was Eva. Everyone from districts eight, nine, and ten killed each other.

Then Red stopped and realized something. _Why am I running from the careers when I am one of them?_ And where was Plaid? Had he already found them? Did he run away too?

She looked over her shoulder. She had to find the other careers, but she had to catch her breath first. Red leaned against the side of the nearest tree. No one would have followed her as far as this.

Red didn't pick up a single thing at the blood bath. She didn't want to have to kill anyone for it, she didn't want to watch the people she knew killing each other either, but she saw it anyway, she was stunned standing at the edge of the clearing for a while fear pounding through her before she pelted off like a terrified deer. Red let out a raspy cough. Her throat was sore from breathing so hard. She still couldn't believe her legs hadn't collapsed when she was running such a distance… or maybe that distance seemed longer to her than it actually was. There was a rustling noise coming towards her from where she came. Instead of standing up, she crouched down. Red wasn't the bravest career there was.

Quietly she hoped it wasn't the boy from district five. He was why Red had stayed at the blood bath. She wasn't stunned. All she was doing was making sure he had lived. He was the one she dreaded to see die. And she guessed that's why she didn't go with the careers at first, because she was afraid they would gang up on him and she would have to watch them kill him… At least some careers still have a heart.

Red wasn't very powerful either, but she was thoughtful. Brad was the boy's name from district five, the careers could still use him, and since district five is the main source of power and industry for the whole nation he must know something about how we could get some sort of power source going. Maybe the careers would accept him.

The rustling drew nearer. She could hear the snap of tall grass as someone knocked it down with some sort of blade. Red bit her lip and drug her legs near to her.

"Hey, Red?" the person called, "Red where are you?" It wasn't the boy from five, but it sounded like one of the careers. "It's me, Aden."

Red slowly and silently got up, and then she came from around the tree. Aden was standing holding a dagger not far from the bottom of the hill. Red didn't like him very much. The blade was already stained from the blood of the girl from district six. She held her head up, and didn't acknowledge that she was thankful he came. Aden had tan skin and black hair, he also had braces, but that was a cool thing now.

"Plaid said we should find you," Aden said swinging the blade back and forth carelessly, "since you're a career too."

Red walked over to him, saying nothing, and waiting with her arms crossed. Why couldn't they have sent someone other than Aden to find me? Plaid knows I hate him.

Aden looked at me. "Why do you hate me so much anyway? I never did anything to you!" He said.

"It's not any of your concern why I hate you, and I don't hate you I just don't care for you very much." Red sighed. "Now are you going to take me back to where you're staying or not."

Aden smiled. That's what I hated the most about him. He thought he was God's gift to women. "I'll take you back to where the others are as long as you promise to be nicer to me, okay?" he said as if I were a child or something.

"Fine," Red responded bluntly. Not agreeing at all, but getting quite annoyed by him instead. "As long as you don't give me reasons to dislike you even more, Aden, don't try and make me mad. You're not very high on my list as it is."

"You're hard to like, you know that?" Aden commented, swinging the blade back and forth again.

Red snickered. "Well, I'm not trying to make anyone like me am I? Now let's get on, I don't like dawdling."

"You're trying to make Brad like you."

That stopped her. She didn't have anything more to say. He was trying to play mind games with her. She just began walking up the hill. Of course Aden go what he wanted, he knew he'd won that argument, and not fairly might I add. The branches didn't smack her face as she went by, and she could brush them gently aside. Something was wrong though, Aden was acting funny. As we walked he would stop. I would of course turn around and make sure I kept my eye on him. I wasn't going to let him make a sneak attack on me. He always just shrugged and carried on. I wouldn't trust him for one second.

When she was far past from where she'd hidden fear started to creep in. Aden isn't leading me anywhere; he's waiting for a chance to kill me! If he was taking me to the others then he would be ahead of me not falling back. But I can't make him mad now… I don't have a weapon; he would kill me for sure.

Aden was walking beside her for now. Red tried not to show her fanaticism, but cold sweat rolled bead by bead down her temple. It was all she could do to keep her head up high and show no fear of him or anything. He swung his dagger back and forth, making me even tenser. My hands started shaking. I should've crossed my arms, but I wouldn't be able to defend myself if he attacked me.

Red coughed, and shook. "It's getting a little chilly don't you think?" She said trying to make her ghastly feeling hidden by a fake unaware appearance. The sun was going down, so it was partly true.

"Yeah…" Aden said absently. His mind was obviously on something else. He swung his dagger back and forth a little harder.

"Shouldn't we be there by now?" Red remarked. It was the wrong thing to say.

Aden looked at the ground then he took both hands on the hilt instead of one and swung it at Red. She ducked her head just in time. Then she took off running as fast as she could. She could hear Aden behind slicing the dagger through the air near her head.

Hot tears made their way down her face. She just couldn't die. Red pushed herself to run faster. She saw a hollowed out tree ahead. Red ran around it, but when she passed she caught what seemed like a face out of the corner of her eye, but there wasn't any time to double-check. Aden was faster than her, but he was also taller than her. Ahead was a fallen tree. She could duck under it, but Aden would have to stop and bend lower to get under it.

Red ducked under the tree easily and ran onward. When she looked back Aden had to slow his pace down to go under as she predicted. Satisfaction hit her like a stone, and she kept running. Then, things got even better. There was a dip in the ground. She ran down into it. Aden couldn't see the top of her head yet. Without thinking, she took off in a different direction around some large rocks, before he was under the tree. She ran around them, but she stumbled and fell down. Her knee was cut, but she got up and began running again.

_It seems like all I've been doing so far is running from people! _She tried and joke with herself, despite the fact she was being chased by a murderous athlete who was determined to kill her, and she had no way to defend herself.

Red was absolutely worn out! Her legs were starting to collapse now. Still around the rocks, Red found a gap between them and scrambled in. She tucked her legs in close to her and made sure her feet were well hidden and she was as far back as she could go. She kept silent. Footsteps thundered towards her or were they running away from her…

"Hey, you!" She heard Aden's voice coming away from where she was. She wanted to peek out and see who he was following, but she was too tired to. So, Red sat and crossed her fingers praying it wasn't Brad.

She heard a cut off scream, a terrible choking sound and a body fall to the ground. She tried not to picture Brad's image like the one she'd heard, once beautiful eyes blank, a slit throat, blood everywhere, crumpled up on the ground motionless with Aden standing looking over him with a bloody dagger in his blood plastered hands, smiling that evil smile.

Then she heard the sound of muffled kicking and cracking… like the sound you hear when someone's skull is breaking.

One single solitary tear rolled down her face, and Red put her hand over her mouth. She didn't dare imagine the picture now. Even if it wasn't Brad who he killed, she still felt sorry for whoever it was. She just prayed it wasn't the boy from district five who she admired so greatly. She put her other hand over her nose to keep Aden for hearing her sniffle. More tears came. That wasn't anyway to die, no one should deserve that! What was more shocking was that Aden would kill people so easily, as if he had no regrets. Didn't he care that he just took someone's life like that?

She trembled still of the thought of the victim. Especially the fact it might, and very well could be Brad, who had come in this direction after the blood bath. The canon went off. She was about to make a giant sob, until she held her legs closer and gripped her face to stop the noise. Maybe she liked Brad a little too much for her own good.

Aden streaked back through the forest; she could hear him trampling down bushes as he came. She saw his boots pass right in front of the hole she was hiding in. He paused and stood right next to the hole. She didn't breathe. Red guessed he must have heard me, but it was so faint he didn't know where it had come from, and now he was looking for me.

To her relief he walked on. She didn't relax until she heard the sound of his crashing far, far away from where she was. Then she let go of her legs and rested her head on the side of the stone, she was so sore and tired and scared she didn't know what to do. She had to see if Brad was dead or not though.

With an effort, Red made herself crawl out of the hiding spot, while her limbs screamed for her to stop moving that they were about to fall to pieces, but she got up, looked around and scampered over to see who it was. With a touch of relief it wasn't Brad. It was the boy from district six, Jay; he was the last tribute from district six. His face was pale, his eyes looked off, and his throat still had blood gushing out of it. Emotionally sickened at the time, Red leaned over and threw up her last meal. She shook herself and crouched down next to him. She took off her back scarf and wrapped it around his neck and pulled it tight so the bleeding would stop. Red closed his eyes, and started rubbing the blood off of his face and dabbed the trail of blood coming from his mouth and the thin line of blood on his lips with the scarf. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything she could do about the crack in his temple where Aden had kicked him, and now that part of his face was scarlet. He tried her best to wipe the blood away but it was already crusting. Red stood up, grabbed him under the arms and laid him on the ground instead of sprawled and on the side of a tree. Blood splattered and ran down the tree where he was, she turned her head abruptly, disturbed by the sight.

Red was tired of the games, and the first day wasn't even over yet. She looked around. No one had seen her. She thought she had done that pretty quietly, other than the part when she threw up behind the tree, but that couldn't be helped.

The second cannon went off. Red jerked and stepped on a twig. Her own blood pounded in the moment that Brad came around onto the path where she was at. He had a knife and was looking at me with emotionless dark eyes, but they were still amazing even when he was terrifying. Red was still fixing one of Jay's arms to a regular position but was now too stunned to move. Fear tore away at her heart along with desire, and she couldn't help but feel numbed by it. Brad walked closer, slowly, but he kept stepping closer until he was standing within arm's reach of me. I looked up at him, I felt so intimidated by him that I was in awe. The blade of his knife was already switched open.

"Did you kill him…?" he asked blankly. There wasn't anything special about his voice, most might even find it annoying, but I like it, and it kept me from answering right away.

"N-no," I tried not to sound so extremely happy that I saw him before someone killed me or so scared that he was going to kill me, "Aden k-killed him." I looked at his face, hoping he would look me in the eye, but he never did, he always avoided me.

Brad looked at Jay, mostly at the place where Aden had kicked his skull.

"Do you know who died for the second cannon?" Red asked him, slightly afraid of what his response would be, "Who killed who?"

Brad kept his eyes on Jay, and I was still frozen. Although this was the most he'd ever talked to me before. "Mickey," he answered, "I killed her."

Red looked up at him. Her hands started to tremble a little bit now. And Brad noticed it. When he looked down at her she looked away. She felt so helpless. He bent down to her level so he could look her in the eye, "I won't kill you," he said with even less emotion than his eyes reflected, "yet, as long as you keep your wits."

She looked at the knife in Brad's hand. It was all black, so she didn't notice the crimson beads dripping from the tip of it at first. His dark eyes pierced her heart when she looked into them. At least he's not going to kill me.

"Where'd you kill Mickey at?" Red asked him, voice quivering at his dark eyes of terror and beauty, if you could see them you would almost want to faint.

Now, Red had a plan. Since she couldn't run away from death, she should respect those who were already dead by making them not so mutilated, like what she did to Jay. She knew she wouldn't be brave enough to go and kill somebody like Aden could, but she didn't have the strength to hide from being killed either, that's no way to live and she knew she wasn't going to win the games anyway.

Brad cleared his throat. "You don't want to see her." He said as calmly as ever. "Mickey looks pretty bad." It was almost as if he could read her mind… which was a bit creepy. "You can't help her like you helped Jay."

Her voice caught in her throat. How could Brad have done something more terrible than Aden? Finally, she was no longer frozen. She backed up away from Brad with her back to the bloody tree. He didn't threaten her, but knowing what he did to Mickey was worse than what Aden did to Jay mortified her.

Brad walked closer to her. She made a small whimpering sound, and began to cry very quietly. Red kept her eyes on him though watching every move he made. He would have no problem killing her. She was stunned again.

Brad held his knife in a fist now. She knew he hated her because she liked him, but would he kill me because of it? Brad knelt and put his knife up to my throat.

_Oh, God, he is going to kill me! _Red closed her eyes. The knife dug deeper into her neck, it hadn't broken through her skin yet, but it hurt.

Then Brad got shoved away from me. Red fanatically jumped to her feet, eyes now opened. Ali, the girl from district four was pinning him down slashing at him with her knives. Instinct kicked in, and Red picked up Brad's black knife and threw it at her back. Blood soaked the white shirt she wore. Ali fell over on her side coughing up blood. Immediately Red put a hand over her mouth. She killed someone! A sinking feeling engulfed her, and she felt like she'd just let down the whole world.

Ali looked at her desperately. "I'm so sorry." Red chocked. "I'm so, so sorry, Ali. I didn't mean to kill you." Red started sobbing. Nothing was going right! She shouldn't have been so mean to Ali before the games, now she'd killed her.

Ali started crying, and she started shaking until she didn't move anymore. Brad rose up. His shoulder was bloody, his chest was bloody, and his face had a big cut on it. He stared at me in disbelief, expressionless. He'd just tried to kill me, but I saved him. If I were Brad I would be confused too, and I just killed the girl he used to like… that wasn't good.

Red's knees buckled. She covered her face and cried harder than she had since the games started. It was one of those uncontrollable crying fits like you used to have when you were still a kid and you found out one of your pets had died, or you're not going to get that awesome toy for Christmas that year.

Brad didn't come over and comfort her in any way. Honestly, I think he hates me even more now. He's a really weird dude. No one really understands him I guess…

Brad shifted. She peeked through her fingers to see what he was up to. He took Ali's knife, which was longer than his. Slowly pulled his black knife from her back and tossed it over to me. He got up, and began walking away without a word.

"You need to clean those wounds Brad." I called to him. He didn't acknowledge me at all. "Wherever you walk you'll get blood on the ground, people will follow you; especially do something with that shoulder-"

Brad stopped and turned around. "Listen, I don't really care about you at all, I literally don't care _anything_ about you, so just stop wasting my time and your time. I can take care of myself, Red."

Red sat in shock. _I just saved his life… and this is the kind of thanks I get from him…?_ Her heart was broken, and her pride was demolished. "Sure, Brad." She responded blankly although her spirit thought a million different was otherwise.

Brad didn't wait a moment longer; he turned back around, and left me grief-stricken, alone, with two dead bodies, and a sharp black knife. And those dark eyes didn't seem quite as amazing as they used to.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Cold, Alone, and Ashamed

Red looked at Ali and Jay, both dead as a door nail, lying next to each other. Her heart ached in more ways than she could ever explain. It was a thousand wonders she hadn't run into someone else like Ky or Aden again who would have killed her by now. Night was drawing near and one cannon had gone off just a few hours ago. It should be close to the time when they show who the dead tributes are.

She walked away from the bodies; back the way Aden had chased her. She remembered the face she'd seen in the tree. Now that she had Brad's knife she could go back and kill whoever was in that tree. She could at least try and win, now that she was full of hatred. Brad made a terrible mistake trying to ignore this girl.

Now that she had nothing to do but wait and be killed, she re-traced her steps back around the rocks and over the dip. Red ducked under the tree. She was limping slightly because of where she'd tripped.


End file.
